Question 1: Choosing appropriate suppliers will involve trading off their alternative attributes. It is rare to find a supplier that is so clearly superior to their competitors that the decision to buy is self-evident. This is especially so given the nature of our business and dependency on the annual crop production cycle. With our recent supply difficulties it is important that we constantly review and match our output requirements with our procurement requirements to ensure reliable ingredients of the correct quality are always available. It is possible to apply some industry standard procedures to this process, and it is worth considering the following criteria and adopting a supplier scoring or assessment procedure, rating alternative suppliers in terms of factors relevant to the Company. Given the possible expansion and changes in the business we need to discuss the above criteria, discuss the most and least relevant and assess potential suppliers accordingly. Currently quality dependability and flexibility of supply are very important to us in the short term, but in the longer term as our business expands the other long term supply abilities are likely to become increasingly relevant. Justify your arguments analytically and support with academic and theories closely related to your explanation. References will be compulsory. (20 marks)